Word: halberstam
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Considering ourselves among the "casual readers" of Mr. D. L. Halberstam's article on "The Negro in the South: I" in the Dec. 1 issue of the CRIMSON, we agree that his article sounded "one-sided" in the extreme. We can agree with Mr. Halberstam's view that the NAACP denouncement of the treatment of Negroes in the South generally and in Mississippi particularly is propaganda. (Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines propaganda as, "Any organized or concerted group, effort, or movement to spread particular doctrines, information, etc.") But it does not follow that, as Mr. Halberstam's article implies, propaganda...
...been murdered and hundreds of others have been terrorized and/or threatened with economic strangulation. The crime committed by three of the murdered person was the undemocratic act of getting the Negro population to exercise their Constitutional right to vote; or had themselves attempted to exercise that right. If Mr. Halberstam believes that to propagandize against these violations of the civil and human rights of Negroes in Mississippi is "to obscure the true picture in the South" and is destructive to the resolution of the racial problem in the United States generally, he is quite mistaken...
...believe, with this purpose in mind that the NAACP has conducted what Mr. Halberstam calls its propaganda campaign against the South. Further- more, we are certain that the NAACP, as do most thinking Americans, sympathizes with what Mr. Halberstam calls "the South's problems." But this does not mean that it must acquiesce in, and remain silent about, the South's hesitancy--and in some places (e.g., Mississippi refusal--to do something about its problems. Such would be tantamount to a denial of the very democratic principles upon which this country was founded...
There are several other rather one-sided aspects of Mr. Halberstam's article on which we would like to comment. First, we would like to agree with (his) statement that there is a double standard of justice in Mississippi particularly and in the South generally. However, his implication that this double standard of justice operates to the advantage of the Negroes is quite misleading...
Although Mr. Halberstam may be correct about white Southern parents being apprehensive about opening the schools to Negroes who have a higher disease rate than whites, he fails to emphasize the fact that many of these white parents are themselves responsible for this situation. Having been relegated for centuries to the lowest economic position in the United States generally and in the South particularly, it is not surprising that Negroes have the highest disease rate of any other group in this country...